This review presents the preparation, transport mechanism and application of molecularly imprinted membranes (MIM). Molecular imprinting has now been established as a technique which allows the creation of tailor-made binding sites for many classes of compounds. MIM have some advantages; a high capacity due to a large surface area, faster transport of substrate molecules and faster equilibrium of binding cavities compared to molecularly imprinted particles. MIM were prepared by covalent and non-covalent chemical bonding systems, by interactions between functional monomer and template. MIM can be prepared by in-situ polymerization, wet phase inversion, dry phase inversion, and surface imprinting method. MIM can continuously separate mixtures based on facilitated or retarded diffusion of the template. MIM can change their permeability in the presence of templates. MIM have a potential to be used to separate chiral compounds and materials with similar structures. However the application of MIM by the chemical industries is still in its infancy stages.

Succinic acid is an important material in industries producing biodegradable polymers, food and pharmaceutical products, and green solvents. Furthermore, succinate fermentation is a novel process due to the fixation of into succinate during fermentation. However, the impurities in fermentation broth make the separation process of succinic acid be difficult. Reactive extraction has been proposed to be an effective primary separation step of succinic acid from dilute fermentation broth. This article presents the principles of reactive extraction along with the characteristics of tertiary amino extractants. A brief overview on the current research on reactive extraction of succinic acid is presented. Finally, for the succinic acid separation, reactive extraction as a primary step is suggested in the whole downstream process for succinic acid from fermentation broth.

Recently preparative liquid chromatography (PLC) has been used more frequently to separate drugs and natural substances. This modern separation methodologies require reliable tools that perform on a high level in terms of efficiency and reproducibility. However, large-scale PLC easily tends to reduce the yield and purity of the product. To promote the separation efficiency of PLC, we need to properly understand the controlling effects of the process, which may enable to predict the process and to improve the design and operation of PLC. Progress in computer technology allows the use of sophisticated models, provided their parameters can be measured. Some hardwares as well as softwares for PLC were already commercially available. In this work, the separation characteristic of PLC will be reviewed and compared on both the software and the hardware.

In bioengineering field, current academic trends and informations on crystallization technology for bioproduct separation were summarized. It is essential for utilizing the crystallization technology to understand the fundamental phenomena of crystallization of crystal nucleation, crystal growth, crystal agglomeration and population balance for the design of crystallizers. In general, the crystal nucleation that the crystalline solids occur from the solution is analyzed by Gibb's free energy change in the aspect of thermodynamics and in the present paper the crystal nucleation models based on the above thermodynamics are summarized by their key characteristics. The crystal growth and agglomeration, which have been studied over 50 years and are essential phenomena for separation technology, are reviewed from their basic concept to most leading edge trend of researches. In the material and population balances for the designs of crystallization separation process, the analysis of crystallizers is summarized. Thereon, the present review paper will academically contribute the understanding the crystallization phenomena and the design of the crystallization separation process.

Simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography was used in the petrochemical industry in the 1960s and its use has been widened to separate chiral compounds in the 1990s. Chiral stationary phase (CSP) is the key component in SMB for the separation of the chiral compounds. CSP has been developed for the analytical use in HPLC, however, its development successfully adapted for the preparative use in SMB chromatography. This review covers the present state-art technology of CSP for SMB chromatography in terms of selectivity, stability, and capacity.

Ionic liquids, composed of organic cations and either organic or inorganic anions remain liquid over a wide range of temperature. ionic liquids are a new group of solvents or extractants of great interest as a potential 'green solvent'. Ionic liquids are gaining wide recognition as novel solvents in many research fields, such as chemistry, chemical engineering, electrochemitry, etc. However, not much researches have been done related to biotechnology using ionic liquids, while a lot of researches have been performed in chemistry. The merits of ionic liquids in bioseparation technology are originated from some unique properties of ionic liquids, such as negligible vapor pressure, good thermal stability, controllable viscosity and miscibility with water and organic solvents. An appropriate selection of ionic liquid for bioprocesses requires basic knowledge on physicochemical properties of ionic liquids. This review gives a brief overview on the application of ionic liquids in biotechnology, including bioconversion and bioseparation.

Chromatography has been a method of choice in the separation of complex biological mixtures for the analytical purpose in particular for the last half of century. In current years, chromatographic method extends its use to the preparative separation where the productivity per resin amount and solvent use become a matter of concern. Recently, simulated moving bed (SMB) method which claims high separation efficiency of the ideal counter-current moving bed chromatography has become a workhorse of preparative separation. SMB technology was developed in the early 1960s for large-scale hydrocarbon separation by UOP and approximately 120 Sorbex units have been licensed to date. Recently, SMB separation technology has been successfully extended from hydrocarbons and sugars to fine chemicals, particularly biochemicals, from laboratory to pilot to production plant. In this paper, the current status of SMB and its modifications were reviewed.

Lab-on-a-chip is a miniaturized analytical device in which all of the procedures for the analysis of molecules are carried out, such as pretreatment, reaction, separation, detection, etc. Lab-on-a-chip has increasing concern as a device not only for rapid detection of molecules but also for high throughput screening and point of care, because conventional laborious and time consuming analytical procedures can be substituted. Thus, a lot of microfabrication and analytical techniques for lab-on-a-chip have been developed with microstructures smaller than a few hundreds of micrometers. Separation of the molecules is one of the most important components of lab-on-a-chip, because effective separation method can simplify the design and can provide better sensitivity. The electrokinetic separation based on capillary electrophoresis is most widely employed technique in lab-on-a-chip for the control of fluids and the separation of molecules. In this article, bioseparation techniques and its applications realized in lab-on-a-chip are reviewed.

Studies for the commercial production of sesame oil using th supercriticl carbon dioxide were made. Characteristics of sesame oil containing one of natural antioxidant 'sesamol', which only exist at sesame seed were also studied during the supercritical fluid extraction. Among the various factors influencing the sesamol contents in the sesame oil, the roasting time and temperature were checked, because sesamol can be converted from sesamol in through pyrolysis. We found that the sesamol content was increased rapidly under the condition of roasting temperature over with longer roasting time. The sesamol content was increased as the temperature and pressure increased, which was caused by increase of solubility of sesamol against sesamol oil. And the sesamol content was increased also with lower speed of supercritical fluid, which increased the contact time with the raw material. The sesamol content was also increased using water increase up to as the entrainer. When the extraction performance with the supercritical fluid was compared to the conventional compressed extraction, the sesamol content was increased up to 11.5 times with the entrainer

The characteristics of sesame oil containing one of natural antioxidant, ' -tocopherol', were studied with the supercritical extraction. Although -tocopherol has a lower vitamin E value in biological systems than -tocopherol, it is a more potent antioxidant with in oils. For the research of various factors influence to the -tocopherol contents increment, we have checked roasting time and temperature, as well as pressure, temperature and flow rate of supercritical fluid. As a result, we found that the -tocopherol content was maintained constant under the condition of roasting temperature over . With the longer roasting time, -tocopherol content was increased. Except 250 bar, the -tocopherol content was maintained constant under the condition of the various pressure of supercritical fluid. But -tocopherol content was increased with lower flow rate of supercritical fluid from 1 /L to 3 /L. When the extraction performance with the supercritical fluid was compared to the conventional compressed extraction, -tocopherol content was increased up to 1.6 times.

Doxorubicin is an anthracycline-family polyketide compound with a very potent anti-cancer activity, typically produced by Streptomyces peucetius. To understand the potential target biosynthetic genes critical for the doxorubicin everproduction, a doxorubicin-specific DNA microarray chip was fabricated and applied to reveal the growth-phase-dependent expression profiles of biosynthetic genes from two doxorubicin-overproducing strains along with the wild-type strain. Two doxorubicin-overproducing 5. peucetius strains were generated via over-expression of a dnrl (a doxorubicin-specific positive regulatory gene) and a doxA (a gene involved in the conversion from daunorubicin to doxorubicin) using a streptomycetes high expression vector containing a strong ermE promoter. Each doxorubicin-overproducing strain was quantitatively compared with the wild-type doxorubicin producer based on the growth-phase-dependent doxorubicin productivity as well as doxorubicin biosynthetic gene expression profiles. The doxorubicin-specific DNA microarray chip data revealed the early-and-steady expressions of the doxorubicin-specific regulatory gene (dnrl), the doxorubicin resistance genes (drrA, drrB, drrC), and the doxorubicin deoxysugar biosynthetic gene (dnmL) are critical for the doxorubicin overproduction in S. peucetius. These results provide that the relationship between the growth-phase-dependent doxorubicin productivity and the doxorubicin biosynthetic gene expression profiles should lead us a rational design of molecular genetic strain improvement strategy.

In this study, Artemisia mongolica fischer extract was examined for its possible differential inhibitory activity against pathogenic bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus and Lactobacillus spp. isolated from women's vagina. First, seven lactobacillus spp. were selected based on their in vitro high anti-staphylococcal activity. Various samples extracted using different concentrations of organic solvents (acetone, ethanol, methanol) were examined for optimal anti-staphylococal activity. When the Artemisia extract obtained using solvents was added to the cell suspension at (vol/vol), Lactobacillus sp. KLB 224 maintained its viability for 48 hr, whereas S. aureus was completely inactivated showing differential antimicrobial activity of the extract. Using scanning electron microscopy the effect of the extract on the cell morphology was observed: S. aureus showed markedly distorted cell morphology while Lactobacillus sp. KLB 224 appeared to remain intact.

In order to investigate the feasibility of 30K protein from silkworm (Bombyx mori) hemolymph (SH) on the proliferation of human cells, a simple separating procedure by anion-exchange chromatography system with Q-Sepharose fast flow gel was established. The 30K protein was eluted with an optimized condition of 0.16 M sodium chloride in 20 mM tris buffer (pH 9.0). The separated 30K protein at three concentrations of 0.04, 0.12, and 0.4 mg/ml was added to the culture medium with various human cells, such as chondrocytes, periosteum-derived cells, and MRC-5 cells, and their growth rates were measured. The cell growth rate at protein concentration of 0.4 mg/ml was always higher than that without 30K protein in all human cells tested, suggesting that the 30K protein has positive effect on the increase of the life span of human cells.

Succinic acid has recently been drawing much interest as a raw material for biodegradable polymer. In this study acetic acid was removed by reactive extraction with various amines dissolved in various diluents. Distribution coefficients were determined as the kind of amines, diluents, and pHs of continuous phase. The extraction capacity increased with the polarity of diluent and the decrease of pH from the artificial binary solution. Based on the different extractability for succinic acid and acetic acid from the artificial binary solution, the removal of acetic acid from fermentation broth was investigated using various amines and diluents. In addition, the extractability and selectivity of CLA for succinic acid and acetic acid from fermentation broth were higher than that of straight solvent extraction.

Chiral separation of racemic ibuprofen was achieved on a Kromasil KR100-5CHI-TBB column. Some chromatographic parameters (resolution, number of theoretical plates, HETP, capacity factor) are calculated under different separation conditions such as change of mobile phase compositions (hexane / t-BME : 85 / 15, 75 / 15, 65 / 35, 55 /45) as well as acetic acid concentrations for adjusting pH (0.1 to 1 ). Flow rate versus number of theoretical plates and HETP were compared to evaluate column efficiency. To determine the adsorption isotherms, PIM (Pulsed Input Method) was carried out. At concentrations of racemic ibuprofen between 0.1 and 0.3 mg/ml, S- and R-ibuprofen have the same retention time of 4.48 and 5.81 min. Ibuprofen isotherms show a linear form under concentrations of 0.3 mg/ml with eluent (hexane / t-BME = 55 / 45).